mad lust envy said:

 So for NOW, I don't have any plans on buying another headphone and sticking to the MA900.

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Anyone who follows this thread knows it won't be too long before this changes. 
 
As kind of a sidebar in regards to comfort, it is certainly an important thing, but everyone is going to have different experiences as far as that goes. The Annie disappears on my head. I don't even notice I'm wearing them half the time. I have a pair of CALs that never caused any problems. My FA-003 clones can get a bit hot at times, but only on the hottest days. I also have a FA-004 clone (can get uncomfortable after long sessions, 3+ hours), G930, and Sennheiser PC150 that haven't caused any problems and are generally very comfortable. 
 
The most offensive headphone I have is the Monoprice 8323. That headband is just torture. The earpads are also uncomfortable after a short amount of time.

aurora-storm said:

  Hello! I am seeking a headphone to compliment both my music and gaming, and after a few suggestions in my thread at Introductions I was directed here. Both gaming and musical experience are equally important to me. I feel like I might have to compromise the quality of one for the other... hopefully this is not the case!
 
Myst...
Surround sound... Sound Blaster Z card...
I also need something comfortable and light for long gaming sessions.
 
Airy vocal and electronic music... Love violin...
Energetic layered music...
 
All that being said, I listen to a huge variety of music and play a large variety of games, and so something balanced (that doesn't overfavour one element only to ruin another) would probably be best. So: immersive environmental experience, quality vocals for both males and females, clarity and accuracy that allows for immersion, and definitely NOT something that muddies the layers in a track...
 
ATH-AD900X... Sennheiser HD598...
 
budget ~ $300 for the phones. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

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Dude... are you like, my clone? I love ALL OF THAT above.
 
Anyways, I started out with an AD700, the AudioTechnica you mentioned above actually would do a fair job avoiding the "wall of sound" issue with non-audiophile headphones where everything blends together, and also be comfortable because it is so light and non-clampy (I wore mine for 8 hour marathons a few times over the years, no headphones disappear completely BUT the Audio Technicas came closest after I bent the headband and balanced the clamp angle by stringing a rubber band between the "wings"). It would be a fair headphone, and you wouldn't have to spend more on a separate amp.
Later (last year) I upgraded to Q701, they're quite awesome, a clear upgrade but sometimes strident if not amped correctly, so about $100 in amp on top of the $200 headphone to get a good (great) experience. If you read Mad's review, he was fond of those too, but ultimately he likes a little more Bass. Chico was mostly happy with the Q's, but he's happier with the slight bass balance tweaks in the newer K701 Anniversary and K712 Pro headphones. Any three of those would be great, it becomes very easy to delineate separate instruments (and hear ones that were previously lost completely in the mix, very subtle headphones). The newer headphones with greater bass may bring your attention to other parts of the song, but they're similar on detail retrieval FWIR.
Mad, as I'm sure you've noticed, is excited about the bargain value of Sony's MA900. Not as refined as the AKG's, but a pleasant crowd pleaser, still very detailed and only a little separates them.
 
It's important to note, though, that all the above headphones respond really well to virtual headphone surround processing... see my "journal" linked in my signature for details, but essentially it creates a cool holographic projection of sound within standard (but detailed) stereo headphones. Not only will you hear the distinct sound of what each object makes, but it will seem to come from distinct locations around you. Very cool effect, something with this processing will make a big difference in your enjoyment once you get used to it.
 
I wish CyanWorlds would make another Myst. Absolutely loved exploring, but few games are of this type anymore (closest you can get IMO is Portal 2 and Skyrim-esq games, where exploration/puzzles and discovery is only an added feature to another genre). If you find new ones, let me know, please?

tmraven said:

  I can kinda relate to not wanting to sell off something so cheap and light, after all the AD700 is still in my possession after multiple years now. 
 
However, I will be keeping this date in mind to see if you bend and buy another pair of headphones (that aren't temporary for your guide) within a year! 

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I had mine for 3 years, almost kept them instead of the Q701, but ultimately the better bass extension (not big bass but reaching low) plus rhythmical involvement won me over.

I just wanted to chime in and thank Mad Lust Envy for writing this wonderful headphone guide. It made choosing gaming headphones simultaneously that much easier and harder. =) I bought my first "audiophile" quality headphones, the ATH-AD700 just over 3 months ago due to this guide and more recently a pair of AKG K702.65 also due to this guide (serial number 57xx came with the newer deeper 712Pro pads shown in Chicolom's comparison). I'm lucky in that there is a nearby headphone shop that just happened to have a pair of K702.65, Q701, HD650 and a bunch of other nice headphones to demo. And boy am I glad I got chance to try them on in person.
 
I have a fairly large head and wear glasses so it's quite difficult to find a comfortable pair of headphones that I can wear for hours and hours. The AD700s fit fairly well since I have a large head but the bottom of the pads pressed again the sensitive soft spot between the bottom of my ears and top of my jaw which causes discomfort after about 15-30 minutes. Fortunately I found a mod for the pads on this forum (insert U-shaped soft packing foam into the inside top of the pads) which fixed the comfort issue for me. As I used them more I found the lack of bass kind of... lacking. I knew they were weak on the bass end before buying them so that wasn't unexpected. I just grew to desire more bass while retaining the very nice mid and treble of the AD700. So back to the guide I go searching for a new pair of all-rounder headphones.
 
I was initially looking at the Q701 since it was about $150 cheaper than the K702.65 but the bumpy headband and stiffer pads made me think twice. Fortunately there's a nearby headphone shop that had both the K702.65 and Q701 so I got a chance to try them both on. Am I ever glad I did. The Q701 felt like a torture device to me. The middle bumps pressed hard on the top of my head and the stiffer pads made it worse than my unmodded AD700 because it pressed even harder on that soft sensitive spot above my jaw. Then I tried on the K702.65 and WOW... these felt like soft marshmallows compared to the Q701. Hard to believe that by simply changing headband and ear pads that it felt sooo different. From that point on, everything else I tried on was "vs K702.65" for me. The HD650 felt like a vice clamp on my head so no higher end Sennheisers for me. The next most comfortable headphones I managed to try on were the Beyerdynamic DT880 Premium. While the DT880s were cheaper (about $20 more than the Q701) than the K702.65, I preferred the more neutral K702.65. I ordered my K702.65 online since the shop was out of stock except for the demo pair. I was kind of surprised when I received my K702.65 that it came with the newer, deeper pads of the 712Pro that Chicolom showed in his comparison vs the K702.65. The older demo K702.65 I tried at the store also had the rounder/donut/inner-tube looking memory foam pads since I was looking for that specifically due to Chicolom's comparison. The newer deeper pads felt just as comfortable as the rounder pads to me, maybe a bit better since my ears were a bit farther away from the drivers. I think that's it for headphones for me for now... but if I feel the need to upgrade again (and that next jump will be very pricey) I know where to look for recommendations. Thanks again MLE for writing this up for us audio newbies!

^ No mention of where you got your Anniversaries from?
 
People are going to want to know...

So newer Annies have deeper pads?

Hahahaha. Oh boy. AKG be crazy.

mad lust envy said:

So newer Annies have deeper pads?

Hahahaha. Oh boy. AKG be crazy.

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Let's wait until he gives us some proof...
 
At least a link so someone will end up confirming.

avroarrow said:

I was kind of surprised when I received my K702.65 that it came with the newer, deeper pads of the 712Pro that Chicolom showed in his comparison vs the K702.65 (serial number 57xx came with the newer deeper 712Pro pads shown in Chicolom's comparison).  The older demo K702.65 I tried at the store also had the rounder/donut/inner-tube looking memory foam pads since I was looking for that specifically due to Chicolom's comparison. The newer deeper pads felt just as comfortable as the rounder pads to me, maybe a bit better since my ears were a bit farther away from the drivers. I think that's it for headphones for me for now... but if I feel the need to upgrade again (and that next jump will be very pricey) I know where to look for recommendations.

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Interesting.  Thanks for the update.  I had a feeling there were some Anniversaries using those pads.  57xx is a fairly high serial number for the Anniversaries, so maybe sometime around then they switched them over to use the K712 pads.
 
You should take some pictures of these pads and post them in the K712 thread.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/659251/the-akg-k712-pro-support-and-appreciation-thread
 

MLE, if you want a shot at reviewing the SR-Lambda, you'll have to decide quickly. Financial circumstances have deemed it necessary to start selling stuff off soon.
 
I don't necessarily want to part with that gear, but the MA900 has proven itself good enough (NOT superior by any means, just good enough to live with), and not much else I have around here would garner me much money if sold.

Right now I just had to pay off a lot of things just to stay in my apartment, so I don't have disposable income. No worries, Nameless.

>_<

Reading this thread is torture. Of course I wanna try the MA900, but it was also a relief that Change's Annies sold (I mean, good for you selling them, but also... they would've sold soon regardless ). And now, more posts about comfort. I don't NEED to keep up with the Jones' (Chicos?), I don't really HAVE any complaints, but... new stuff looks fun.
Am I a masochist for reading this thread (and being tight with my wallet)? Lol.

Edit: I say that, post, then get a weird feeling seeing the two posts made since I loaded this page and wrote my post.

I'm thinking of picking up the MA900s, but I'm curious, if I were to get the Annie's would I also need to get a second amp to properly power them along with a mixamp? And if so would something like a Schiit amp work prety well?

If you plan on attaching a mic, yes. If just for single player gaming, no, though those AKG drivers do scale with better amping. A Schiit Magni would do the Annies justice, as far as budget friendly amping goes.


Ah yeah, sorry guys, I should be sending out the MA900 soon, so....

Evs, Change (you still want to try the MA900?), Matt, calpis, I need your names/addresses.

I'll leave the X1 up for sale, but probably looks like I'll wanna keep them while the MA900 is away.

mad lust envy said:

If you plan on attaching a mic, yes. If just for single player gaming, no, though those AKG drivers do scale with better amping. A Schiit Magni would do the Annies justice, as far as budget friendly amping goes.


Ah yeah, sorry guys, I should be sending out the MA900 soon, so....

Evs, Change (you still want to try the MA900?), Matt, calpis, I need your names/addresses.

I'll leave the X1 up for sale, but probably looks like I'll wanna keep them while the MA900 is away.

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I'm down like four flat tires...

evshrug said:

>_<

Reading this thread is torture. Of course I wanna try the MA900, but it was also a relief that Change's Annies sold (I mean, good for you selling them, but also... they would've sold soon regardless

). And now, more posts about comfort. I don't NEED to keep up with the Jones' (Chicos?), I don't really HAVE any complaints, but... new stuff looks fun.
Am I a masochist for reading this thread (and being tight with my wallet)? Lol.

Edit: I say that, post, then get a weird feeling seeing the two posts made since I loaded this page and wrote my post.

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Hahaha! Glad it worked out... though I see you biting the hook on something else very soon!

I ordered my Annies from razordogaudio late August so I've only had them for 1 week so far.  I'm still a newbie at this so I may be wrong about the pads but they don't seem round like an inner tube shape like the Annie pictures Chicolom posted.  I'll try to post some photobucket links but I can't find what the max image size I can post here, the intro FAQ for this forum didn't specify, so I'll resize them down to 800x600 to be safe.  Actually, since I'm still new, I'm not sure the image links will work due to the anti-spam measures in place.  I'll try anyway.
 
EDIT: yay, I can insert proper image links now.
 

 

 

 
It's hard to get the lighting just right to show the shape.  The black velour/velvety texture makes it very hard to photograph.  The pads are about 24mm tall measuring from the outside plastic edge.  Chicolom's pictures show the original/older Annie pads to be noticeably shorter, although if that's from prolonged use/compression, I don't know for sure, and that's assuming mine are in fact different and are similar to the 712Pro pads.

AvroArrow,
They're good pics, I think this one gives me a good idea vs the Q701 pads I have:


Your pads have a bowl-shape to them, while my Q's have inner tube/ doughnut shaped pads.
[P.S., To get the image to display, I just copy/pasted the link in the "IMG" box in the "links" sidebar of your photobucket page, you can "quote" my reply to see how they coded that out]

change is good said:

I'm down like four flat tires...
Jeez, sound positive about it, why don'tcha?

Hahaha! Glad it worked out... though I see you biting the hook on something else very soon!

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I'm thinking about the money down I dropped on my new car in July, and then August I ran up my credit card bill higher than ever before... yet somehow I'm in budget to pay said bill (I never spend money I don't already have), and somehow I still put a couple hundred in savings last month. I definitely needed the car and computer, got a great deal on both and already using them directly/indirectly to make money, now I want to slow down and keep building my savings, but in my mind I'm thinking "I can probably recoup most of my money I put into my Q701 and E12, which would only put me a few bucks away from a used K712 Pro... But I love my Q's! I'm happy with them! But I could buy the K712 Pros and still technically be slowing down..."

So yeah, circuituitous thinking. I'm actually happy with the comfort and bass on the Q's, the K712's would be fun but what I REALLY want is more soundstage depth and what that one guy who recently did the big "flagship headphone round-up" was hearing when he typed about "transparency." I don't even know if I believe in it, the practical difference from AD700 to Q701 was audible and added up to being musical but each difference felt incremental.

By the way, been listening to the M-100 more, in a lot of ways going from the Q701 to the M-100 feels a lot like how Mad described going from the Annies to the X1, though my tastes run more "neutral" or something so the M-100 is a fun dalliance (that I often reach for) that doesn't give up much to the Q, but the Q701 remains my "main" headphone in my mind. Like Mad needs bass-headache breaks from the X1, I need clamp breaks from the M-100, but I feel comfortable considering them my endgame easy portable/sealed headphone, that handles home use admirably too.